Five nights of debate ended Thursday, March 4, when a motion to reconsider the Temple zoning article was withdrawn by the man who put reconsideration on the table.

Webster Collins had suggested the meeting reconsider the article so it could be sent back to the Planning Board. One hour later, after a number of town meeting members had spoken either for or against the concept of reconsideration, it was apparent the question was moot.

Temple President Linda Packer told the meeting the Temple has to act by May and town officials drew a time line that made it clear the article could not be discussed again at the annual town meeting.

Now the ball is in the Temple’s court. Some neighbors want to walk to retail shops. Some neighbors want nothing to do with adding a commercial mix to their area. Members of the Temple say their option is to sell the land to someone who would create affordable and high density housing in a way that would sidestep town zoning.

It was a draining process.

David Sumner Cutler, 66, a community newspaper giant, died Feb. 28 of bilary cancer in a journey chronicled on a web site tended by his son Josh. If you care to read that story, go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davidcutler/mystory.

His death was like his life – cutting edge, risky and complicated.

David was my friend and mentor. We met at the Patriot Ledger when he was just back from being a Marine in Vietnam. It was not until many years later that I discovered he was a hero. The paper for his Purple Heart said that while under enemy fire, he risked his life to save one of his men who had fallen in an exposed position. David was wounded as he tried to save a young man. His scars from Vietnam were usually covered by clothing and bravado.

He was always brave. He held himself to extraordinarily high standards. He came from a family accustomed to accomplishment.

His parents, the late John and Bobbi Cutler, started the Duxbury Clipper 60 years ago. He grew up understanding the difficulties of a weekly newspaper.

David was a graduate of Holderness School in New Hampshire and Colby College. His grandmother, the late Cid Ricketts Sumner, was the author of several books. She wrote “Quality” a story made into a movie called “Pinky” about the topic of interracial marriage when there were still states that outlawed those marriages. She wrote the “Tammy Out of Time” which became the movie “Tammy and the Bachelor” starring Debbie Reynolds. His maternal grandfather, the late John Sumner, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. His father’s family were Greek immigrants, making the fact that his father graduated from Harvard and authored a number of books of his own, all the more impressive.

In the spring of 1972, when David was not yet 30, he, his wife, and a partner, Mike Stearns - who had a small amount of cash - started the Marshfield Mariner.

Most of his friends in the business thought his parents backed that venture. We weren’t surprised he didn’t sink. The truth was what saved him was hard work, commitment, and a community that wanted its own local paper. He and his partner were just about out of money when the election season began and the Marshfield politicians began showing up looking for advertising space.

That wasn’t his only close call financially. David grew his business from one paper to 17 when he sold the operation to Cap Cities ABC in the 1980s. He stayed on at the green building in Marshfield’s industrial park for a few more years.

When he left, he partnered with John Coots, who had been his boss in the corporate structure. The pair bought the Southbridge Press which included the Southbridge Evening News and several smaller papers and David was on his way to creating his second newspaper empire. They also owned Salmon Press, a venture that publishes several newspapers in New Hampshire. He once told me he was amazed at the low sale price of some weeklies. At the time of his death, his holdings included 23 newspapers in three states.

David took over the ownership of the Duxbury Clipper after his father’s death in 1998. For more than 10 years, his son, Josh has run the Clipper. Under Josh’s leadership, the Clipper opened several sister papers, called the Express in Hanson, Whitman, East Bridgewater and Pembroke. Josh is no longer serving as the publisher of the Clipper since he decided to run for state representative in the district.

David is survived by his wife, the Rev. Catherine Cullen, of Duxbury; two sisters, Margaret Chandler of Maryland and Gail Cutler of Pembroke; three sons, Josh S. Cutler of Duxbury, Benjamin D. Cutler of New York and Jonathan M. Cullen of West Roxbury; three, daughters Carolyn M. Cutler of Georgia, Rebecca W. Cutler of Duxbury and Amanda C. Benard of Hingham, and seven grandchildren.

He leaves a large extended family, including ex-wives, former step children and many friends.

A graveside service at Mayflower Cemetery was held March 4 at 10 a.m. A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 13 at 5 p.m. at First Parish Church, Duxbury.

Donations may be made to the Cutler Family Scholarship in care of the Trustees of Partridge Academy, P.O. Box 2552, Duxbury, MA 02331.

Phil Perry, our advertising coordinator, will be handling the gathering of information. Phil is particularly suited for this task, having roots in the community and an ability to listen deeply.

Our graphics designer, William Curry, is working on developing a map of the town that will fit on the pullout flap. William is also tasked with creating the front page, which will be a glossy full color page that will have information about the contents. This year we aren’t planning to sell any ads on the cover - we need the residents to understand this book is all about their community.

Last week we sent a mailing out to all the businesses in town with information about our little telephone  book. There is interest in the book - especially from business owners who use a cell phone as their work number and from home-based businesses.

Most of the prime locations sold even before the mailing hit the streets.

But now the real work begins for me as I gather ad copy (and checks).

People ask how this is different. And I have my reply ready. First this is just Milton. Not Canton. Not Stoughton. Not tiny type like the Verizon book. Next we are printing 10,000 copies and having it delivered to the 9,800 Milton addresses. The last time the Lawrence-based telephone book company did town-wide distribution was in 2002. (But we know Indian Cliffs got a 2009 book.)

We want this book to work for the entire community.

But people keep asking me, why is the Milton Times doing this now even after I have explained there is a need for a good local phone book.

And they are right, there is another reason.  The local economy hit a plateau in 2009. Our small business needs a way to break the stranglehold of a choking economy.

Nearly 30 years ago I worked at Mariner Newspapers, which was then headquartered in Marshfield. It was a newspaper chain created by David Cutler, whose parents started the Duxbury Clipper. David ran his business on a shoestring thanks to a staff that loved what they were doing.

Whenever the economy delivered a slow season, David started a new venture. It was an amazing lesson. He sold the Mariner papers in the late 1980s to a major corporation. And they’ve been sold a few times since. David is still involved in the newspaper business, having inherited the Clipper and parlayed his own money into backing a small daily near Worcester and a few tiny weeklies in New Hampshire.

The business model I have implimented at the Milton Times is the one I learned from David. “Local, local, local,” he would say. “Some say parochial as if it were a bad word but people want local news. They want to know about their local community.”

It is a lesson any community newspaper does well to remember. Thank you, David.

If I wrote about it now on this blog our competitors might catch up with us.

I’ll write about it Thursday, once the paper is on the street.

If there were a way to pay for a local news on the web, it would be great.

We  did test an online subscription model back in 2002. It was a financial failure. The good news is the print model still works on a local level. Maybe that’s because we gave up the internet experiment when it failed to pay for itself.

Right now we are testing another model. Once a week we email “With the Athletes” to a small group of people who have paid us for the email blast.  The column has long been the favorite of our print subscribers. So far the number of people who have paid for the email is relatively small. Maybe this is a 100 monkeys sort of experiment. Maybe it will catch on all at once when 100 subscribers have signed on.

I happen to think it is the wave of the future - but then I still read print newspapers on a regular basis. What do I really know about the people who think news is not worth the price of a paper.

 Not only can I be found on Twitter and Facebook but I blog about my life and work. I amaze myself.

My latest digital trick is posting to You Tube.

Click below and visit the Milton Times office for about two minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yupd4VqwBLE

My daughter and her two children want to spend the day at home.

My daughter works for the Salvation Army in Berlin. She is busy delivering Christmas presents to the needy this season. By Christmas she usually is tired.

Me too. The holiday season can be grueling. Today I traveled along the Forbes Holiday House Tour, enjoying the season and thinking about how amazing the mansions look in their Christmas wrappings.

This week I have two important holiday parties. Our staff party is Friday at the home of Judy McDonough. We close the office from 1 to 2 p.m. every Friday for our weekly staff meeting. This week, we will be closed until 2:30 (or so).  I’m still trying to figure out what I can bring for the gift swap.

The other party happens Tuesday with the women of the Board Forum. We haven’t been meeting regularly this year. But last month we had dinner and there is a possibility we may be dinnering more often.

And, of course, we all think of days past as we live through the joy of the day.

But living in the present, we can enjoy living in minutes of gratitude and hope.

Taking time for family and friends helps me find new energy.

This is a busy time of year at the Milton Times. We always run the paper at between 30 to 40% advertising. And this season we usually have more retail advertising than in the other three seasons. It gives us more space for photos and news about the community.

Thanksgiving is the height of our advertising season - it makes it difficult to take a whole day off. Yet we do.

There were a few parties to celebrate - one party brought out about 300 Fuller Village residents.

As I understand it the Men’s Breakfast group at the COA was one of the party sites.

I know there was a party for the family Nov. 1 at Sen. Brian Joyce’s home. During that party two of Jerry’s grandchildren who are abroad were planning to call him using Skype. (For the non-geeks, that means an internet phone call.)

I wasn’t at the family party so I can’t tell you how the phone call went.

But I was at Fuller Village Friday evening with many of Jerry’s family and friends. Harriet Rosen played the piano and everyone sang along. The whole event was a lot of fun. Every resident of Fuller received an invitation to the party.

One focal point of the party was a reading by the senator and some of his siblings that documented Jerry’s life. The massive reading was a framed resolution signed by the 40 state senators to commemorate the birthday.

Happy birthday, Jerry, and best regards.